FUNDAMENTALISM 
VERSUS: 


MODERNISM 


James W. JoHNsON 


ToEsCENFTURY: CO, 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 





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LOGICAL StMN 






Fundamentalism 


Versus 


Modernism 









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SS es 
JUN 9 1941 ~ 
Fundamental We 
Vo ETSUS LOG IGh L Scims 
Modernism 


A Layman’s Viewpoint 


By 


James W. Johnson 





THE CENTURY CO. 


New York &° London 


Copyright, 1925, by 
JAMES W. JOHNSON 


PRINTED IN U. §S. A. 


PREFACE 


Intolerance, pride and ignorance 
nailed Christ to His cross. Intoler- 
ance, pride and ignorance inspired 
Philip II of Spain and Thomas de Tor- 
quemada to torture to the death thou- 
sands of Netherlanders. The same 
Satanic trio have throughout the cen- 
turies weakened the Church and 
brought to it untold distress and agony. 
The same spirit, born of hell, is today 
at work dividing those who love Our 
Lord and creating enmity between 
them. 

To rebuke this evil influence is the 
purpose of the simple statements fol- 


Preface 


lowing. If the language used seems 
at times too strong, it must be remem- 
bered that moral suasion will not per- 
suade Satan; perhaps sledge hammer 
blows will be equally futile. But the 
light of truth revealing his devilish 
guile may be helpful to some who do 
not understand. It is with this hope 
in mind that I have written. 
J.W.J. 

June, 1925. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


I The Controversy | 
II Unimportant Differences 
IiI A Vital Issue 
IV Judgment 
V Danger of Modernism 
VI A Confession of Faith 


VII Violation of a Sacred Law . 


Conclusion 


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FUNDAMENTALISM VERSUS 
MODERNISM—A LAY- 
MAN’S VIEWPOINT 





Fundamentalism Versus 
Modernism 
A Layman’s Viewpoint 


CHAPTER I 


THE CONTROVERSY 


| LAYMAN is often puzzled at 
A the arguments and controver- 

sies of various church people. 
These people seem to be so terribly in 
earnest over what to him appears almost 
trivial. They are so wrought up over 
theories and beliefs. They even go the 
limit of persecution, yes, excommunica- 


[3] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


tion, in their earnest zeal. If the other 
party or individual does n’t harmonize 
with their opinion, that party or individ- 
ual must be of the devil and must be 
leading innocents astray or must be so 
hidebound and stuck in the mud of prej- 
udice and out-worn beliefs as to be 
hopeless, even pitiable. What does it 
all mean? The layman thought that 
church people, professed followers of 
Christ, would of all others be temperate, 
gentle and forbearing; but these va- 
rious sects seem to be the very ones 
actuated by an excess of zeal, fury and 
condemnation against their brothers in 
Christ who cannot agree with them in 
the non-essentials of faith. Surely 
here is a matter of wonder; surely the 
king of hell must rejoice and his black 
[4] 


The Controversy 


angels chortle with glee at such divi- 
sion, such schism, such unholy bitter- 
ness and strife among those who pro- 
fess to be the disciples of the Prince of 
Peace. 

One party says that God made Adam 
from the dust of the earth, breathed 
into him, and Adam got up and walked, 
lived and moved and had his being, 
just as you and I do; and that with the 
in-breathing of God, Adam also came 
into possession of a soul; and so we have 
the explanation of the mystery of the 
ages, the origin of man, strange and 
incomprehensible union of the divine 
and the human, the material and the 
immaterial. ‘The other party says no, 
the account in Genesis is but an alle- 
gory, very beautiful indeed but not in- 


[5] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism | 


tended to be taken literally. Man 
was developed through long periods of 
time from the lower animals. As for 
his soul, its origin is at best uncertain 
as its substance, if it has any, is too in- 
tangible to be defined; and the best 
that can be said is, here it is, explain 
it as you choose; or it is the product 
and development of man’s mind. Per- 
haps if this other party would not say 
quite all this about the soul, their con- 
clusion would be approximately similar. 
The layman, being but a layman, does 
not pretend to understand just what 
the second party holds to be true. 


[6] 


CHAPTER IT 


UNIMPORTANT DIFFERENCES 


OW what real difference does 
N it make how man had his ori- 

gin? Manifestly such origin 
is beyond our knowing in the light of 
present knowledge. And if so, why 
make such a row about it? What is 
the difference to me whether God made 
my original ancestor out of dust or 
whether God made my ancestors by the 
wonderful process of evolution through 
ages of time? The fact of the matter 
is, here I am, with my body, mind and 
soul, with all the demands of these 

[7] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 





three departments of my being, and 
all the hopes and joys and disappoint- 
ments that “flesh is heir to.” These 
are to me most important and un- 
escapable facts, and in view of their im- 
portance, all theories of my remote 
origin pale into insignificance. 
Perhaps, however, the two warring 
factions are really troubled over the 
errancy or inerrancy of the Scriptures. 
If the Bible is God’s word to man and 
if the Bible states a fact, what right 
have we to interpret these facts as we 
choose, to say that some of them are 
allegory and some are not? Would 
not such a reasoning make of the Bible 
altogether too much of a hit or miss 
affair, and would we not really be left 
without a foundation for the faith that 
[8] 


Unimportant Differences 


isin us? Surely sound reasoning and 
having more than a flavor of common 
sense. Is it not quite unanswerable? 
Let us see. 

In Psalm 29, vs. 6, David says of the 
mighty cedars of Lebanon that God 
“maketh them to skip like a calf; Leba- 
non and Sirion like a young unicorn.” 
So then we are to understand that God 
suddenly made these great trees to 
jump about, to gambol, to disport 
themselves like calves and unicorns. 
A quite jovial picture to be sure and 
yet somehow we find it difficult to ac- 
cept literally. It seems too fantastic, 
quite unlike anything we associate with 
God’s acts. But you say this was 
merely poetic license, a freedom granted 
to all poets in all ages. Quite so, and 


[9] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


in like manner why not grant to the 
author of Genesis a similar freedom in 
his grand, poetic, allegorical record of 
the beginning of things? Of course, 
common sense, and the grace of God 
within us, must be the basis of our 
understanding of all matters not pos- 
sible of clear demonstration. And yet 
a very war of words and a tempest of 
steaming passions are caused by those 
holding to the errancy or the inerrancy 
of Scripture. 

Now what real difference does it 
make? The meaning is clear. In the 
one case, that God is the Creator of all 
things, life included; in the other that 
the voice of God is so mighty that all 
nature thrills in response. Words fail 
the poet to give adequate expression. 


[10] 


Ummportant Differences 





He uses poetic license. He describes 
nature as overwhelmed, quivering in 
fear, again delirious with joy at the 
majestic, all-powerful voice of its Crea- 
tor. There is no ambiguity, no un- 
certainty as to the meaning in either 
case. And yet these queer people 
quarrel and argue and argue and quar- 
rel again over their childish difference; 
a difference indeed without a distinc- 
tion. 

Again the controversy over miracles; 
unending and futile; a cause of bitter- 
ness and strife; therefore a cause of 
weakness to Christ’s church on earth; 
a church needing harmony and a united 
front in the great battle against the in- 
sidious and powerful forces of evil. 
One party believes in all the miracles 


[11] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


of the Bible and finds no difficulty in 
such belief. Their theory apparently 
is that the Bible says so and that ends 
it; or perhaps they might go further 
and say that God is all-powerful, and 
if He chooses to perform miracles 
through His priests or prophets or 
through Christ so that men may the 
more clearly recognize His power or 
for some other reason, why not? 
Surely we cannot limit His power, 
otherwise our conception of Him as 
God is at best very inadequate and He 
ceases to be God and only a great, 
unknowable and mysterious force. 
Therefore miracles are altogether likely 
and only lack of faith and lack of ap- 
preciation of the real meaning of the 
Word, in fact rationalism and material- 


[12] 


Unimportant Differences 


ism, are the basis of such skepticism. 

The other party says no. No one 
ever saw a miracle and no miracles ever 
were performed. The record of such 
wonders is quite natural however. “In 
the times of men’s ignorance,” when 
tradition was so common and writing 
was so rare, the imagination was quite 
likely to invest one’s hero or God with 
just such marvelous deeds. Greek and 
Roman literature abounds with ex- 
amples. But who today believes in the 
strange, weird and sometimes degrad- 
ing deeds of the gods of Greece and 
Rome? In like manner, the miracles 
of the Bible were invented. They bear 
witness indeed to the adoring wonder 
and belief of those who would ascribe 
miraculous power to their deity but 


[13] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


they have no basis in fact, they can- 
not be proved. A charming delusion 
indeed but an evidence of childish 
credulity, indicative of ignorance rather 
than suggestive of faith founded on 
reason. And so the battle is on again, 
the old, old_ strife between those 
who call themselves devoted _believ- 
ers in their God and those who claim 
a like devotion and reverence but 
who cannot believe in fairy tales no 
matter how beautiful, uplifting and 
idealistic. The truth, the plain truth 
and nothing but the truth, must be for 
them the basis of their faith. They 
refuse absolutely and unalterably to 
accept the miraculous either in Scrip- 
ture or in any writing because such a be- 
- lief savors too strongly of the imagina- 


[14] 


Unimportant Differences 





tion only and does not harmonize with 
the sound, clear, cool and dispassionate 
findings of scientific investigation. 

One of the greatest preachers of our 
day, if I rightly interpret his writings, 
cannot bring himself to believe in 
miracles. Perhaps he would like to, 
but he cannot. And yet his writings 
clearly indicate a deep, reverent, Chris- 
tian spirit, fully alive to the power, 
majesty and fatherhood of God, as well 
as to the wondrous love and atoning 
power of Christ. 

What after all is the need of belief 
in miracles? If all the miracles of the 
Bible were proved to be but myths 
what essential foundation of faith would 
be lost? None whatever. Notasingle 
fact necessary for man’s reconciliation 


[15] 


Fundamentalism V ersus Modernism 





to God would be lacking. Perhaps at 
first such a statement may be thought 
extreme, even a proof of a mind lost in 
the maze of rationalistic philosophy. 
But examine the statement. You still 
have left belief in God, His power, His 
glory, His Fatherhood, His love for 
man. You still have belief in Christ 
as God’s only Son, His divinity, His 
equality with God, His love for man, 
and the efficacy of His atonement. 
You still have left belief in the Holy 
Spirit, His habitation in the hearts of 
men, His constant intercession for men, 
with “groanings which cannot be ut- 
tered.” If these are not the founda- 
tion stones of faith then I confess my- 
self to be utterly at sea as to the mean- 
ing of God’s Word and His revelation 
[16] 


Unimportant Differences 


of Himself to men as found in that 
Word. Even the glorious resurrection 
of Christ with all its wondrous Easter 
cheer is not essential to my firm belief 
in immortality. For I have what to me 
is better, Christ’s own words: “Let 
not your heart be troubled; ye believe 
in God, believe also in Me. In my 
Father’s house are many mansions. I 
go to prepare a place for you. And if 
I go and prepare a place for you I will 
come again and receive you to Myself. 
That where I am, there ye may be also.” 
If this is not a clear assurance of im- 
mortality for Christ’s followers, lan- 
guage has no meaning. 

Again, the Virgin Birth; what a 
library of controversy, what an endless 
discussion! And all over a problem be- 


[17] 


' Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 





yond solution; a question without an 
answer. Yet this fact or this myth is 
so all-important to Fundamentalist and 
to Modernist, and they are so mightily 
stirred thereby, that a layman might 
think it must surely be of vast impor- 
tance. Certainly these learned doctors 
of the law, these men of God, would not 
spend so much energy over a matter 
not important. And yet that is the 
very thing they are doing. The tre- 
mendous, overwhelming, glorious fact is 
that Christ was born, that He lived for 
thirty-three years among men, that He 
lived and suffered and died that we 
through His wondrous sacrifice may 
live. Whether or not He was born of 
a virgin is of small importance. Be- 
lieve it or not as you like. Notwith- 


[18] 


Unimportant Differences 





standing all the creeds of all the ages, 
the Virgin Birth is of minor importance, 
and your faith in God and His Son is in 
no wise dependent thereon. 

It is passing strange indeed that men 
of real faith and men of sound learn- 
ing can so waste their time and their 
God-given talents in such idle, futile 
controversy. 


[19] 


CHAPTER ITI 


A VITAL ISSUE 


V } HE arguments between these 

two factions of the church has 

a serious meaning. Men of 
faith within the church are greatly dis- 
turbed, and with reason. If those 
especially fitted to be the leaders in 
thought are so engaged, the layman 
quite naturally is moved with uncer- 
tainty, is made a questioner rather 
than a firm believer. If he is told 
that great and vital matters are at 
issue, that a real division of the church 
seems imminent, that now is the time 


[20] 


A Vital IT SSUE 


(SS SE en SE SRE, SSSA SARS FS SP SE SOS SARE SEER ETE EE 
for real Christians to band together and 
repulse the assaults of loose-thinking 
and perverted emissaries of Satan, etc., 
etc., etc., surely his simple life of faith 
and loving obedience to Christ is 
threatened. His unsettled mind and 
troubled soul will surely be reflected in 
a narrower and weaker Christian life. 

To men outside the church the con- 
troversy may mean great rejoicing or 
be a cause of wonder, depending upon 
their attitude toward religion. Those 
without God and without hope in the 
world will smile in derision at the ex- 
posure of such weakness and, to them, 
real meaning of religion. At last the 
church is revealed for what it is, a huge 
humbug, made up of self-deluded, 
weak-minded men and women, all too 


[21] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


ready to quarrel and fight among them- 
selves over trifling differences of 
opinion. The church of Christ for- 
sooth! Rather a pretentious collection 
of hypocrites, made to appear in their 
reality, so soon as sufficient reason 
arises. ‘They may sing, and pray, and 
preach to their hearts’ content, but no 
such humbug for me. -I prefer the 
truth and will choose it rather than be- 
come a living lie and win my self- 
contempt. 

To those outside the church but of 
more reverent mind, who have often 
meditated and questioned the real mean- 
ing of life, as all must do at times; 
who have felt a longing for the peace 
and joy that church people talk about 
so much, and who always intended 


[22] 


A Vital Issue 


some time or other to take the matter 
seriously and become a partner in this 
soul insurance company, to these, the 
matter is now settled; there is nothing 
in it; they too are glad for this revela- 
tion of what religion really is, and they 
are glad that the truth has come to 
them before they became partners in 
any such hypocritical confession of faith 
in God or Christ or Holy Spirit. 
Away with the church and all it stands 
for. If this is the way church people 
get on among themselves, the church 
must surely be founded on falsehood 
and its most devoted members are either 
deluded enthusiasts or rank hypocrites. 
For above all else, the world needs 
peace, harmony and brotherly love. 
These people stand for strife and con- 


[23] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 





tention, bitterness and hate. In fact 
their church seems to be about to split 
on the rock of their controversy. No 
sinking ship for me. Rather will I live 
and die on the safe ground of reason and 
common sense. 

Such a conclusion seems at least rea- 
sonable even if it be somewhat super- 
ficial. A more thoughtful conclusion 
might be that during twenty centuries 
the church has passed through many 
and more severe trials and today stands 
stronger than ever. Such a tempest in 
a teapot can no more shake the founda- 
tion on which she is safely builded than 
can the waves which beat upon Gibral- 
tar move the mighty fortress, 


[24] 


CHAPTER IV 


JUDGMENT 


UT what shall be said of these 
B contentious, bigoted or loose- 
thinking Fundamentalists and 
Modernists? “Better that a millstone 
were hanged about his neck and he cast 
into the sea than that he should offend 
one of these little ones.” “One of these 
little ones,” indeed; rather thousands 
have been offended, distressed, made to 
doubt and become sorely troubled; 
thousands perhaps turned away from 
the joy and peace and consolation found 
more fully in Christ’s church than else- 


[25] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 








where; thousands jeering at the unholy 
quarrel; thousands laughing to scorn 
these blatant hypocrites revealed in 
their shameful nakedness. Hypocrites 
indeed they are; forgetting the won- 
drous law of love to God and love to 
man, they give themselves with heart 
and soul and strength to their most un- 
christian strife. Without doubt they 
are true believers in God and Christ 
and Holy Spirit; but they grievously 
err in thinking that God’s kingdom on 
earth is being served or honored by 
such ungodly strife. “Woe unto you, 
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye 
pay tithe of mint and anise and cum- 
min, and have omitted the weightier 
matters of the law, judgment, mercy 


[26] 


Judgment 


and faith.” How well the denunciation 
fits! Scrupulous, meticulous, exacting 
in trifles, and with blind stupidity omit- 
ting and glossing over the essentials of 
righteous judgment and merciful char- 
ity and true faith. “Ye blind guides, 
which strain at a gnat and swallow a 
camel.” 

If only one will believe that every 
word of Scripture is literally true, that 
the God of Abraham and Isaac and 
Jacob, the God of Matthew, Mark, 
Luke and John, the God of Paul, never 
intended wider, fuller and more glori- 
ous conceptions of Himself to enter 
into the hearts and souls of men than 
they could receive in their earlier gen- 
erations of partial understanding; if 


[27] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 





only one will accept such a creed as this, 
all well and good; otherwise he is 
headed for perdition. 

Just a word here lest some one mis- 
understand me. ‘The God of Abraham, 
of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of Mat- 
thew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul, is 
indeed the only true and living God; 
but if Christ had lived among men dur- 
ing the past twenty centuries, and if he 
had continued to teach and bless and 
enlarge our minds, we should certainly 
today have a larger, truer and more 
comprehensive understanding of God. 
This indeed He has done to a certain 
extent by His presence with us in the 
Holy Spirit; but men are only men af- 
ter all and to err is human, therefore 
even the teaching and enlightenment of 


[28] 


Judgment 


——oOooo———_—__——>>>=—=>=a=>aaA2~A92A~29A9~9a9a9y_yy_=—_ 
the Holy Spirit has not resulted in our 
perfect understanding of God. Such 
a result is in fact impossible since He is 
infinite and we are finite. Now if our 
conceptions of God may become fuller, 
deeper and more comprehensive, in like 
manner many of the foundation stones 
of our faith may become deeper, 
stronger, and more firmly established 
by reason of our increased knowledge, 
larger experience, and continued en- 
lightenment of the Holy Spirit. 

But to return to our warring friends. 
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited 
sepulchres, which indeed appear beauti- 
ful outward, but are within full of 
dead men’s bones, and of all unclean- 
ness. liven so ye also outwardly ap- 


[29] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


pear righteous unto men, but within ye 
are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” 

Could there be a more accurate de- 
scription? The pillars of the church, 
those prominent in all that pertains to 
Sunday-School, prayer meeting, and 
church ordinances, those best qualified 
by education and training in Christian 
homes and among Christian people, en- 
gaging with their brother Christians in 
a most virulent, bitter and unchristian 
strife—these are whited sepulchres 
indeed, fair to look upon and yet filled 
with the foul, dead bones and contami- 
nating uncleanness of unholy passion, 
devilish bitterness, and a narrow bigotry 
born in hell. “Ye serpents, ye genera- 
tion of vipers, how can ye escape the 
damnation of hell?” 


[30] 


Judgment 


{t must not be understood that I am 
criticizing the whole party of Funda- 
mentalists or the whole party of Mod- 
ernists; but only that portion of each 
sect which, blinded by Satan and filled 
with his spirit of evil, is doing so much 
to discredit the church and to weaken 
her power. Many indeed there are who 
hold staunchly to the older methods of 
thinking and many indeed there are 
who accept the newer thought who are 
rooted and grounded in the faith, who 
are doing their best to fulfill the law of 
Christ and who are giving their lives 
generously and nobly for the welfare of — 
their fellow men. And these saintly 
men and women are quite content to let 
the noisy tempest pass; they wisely re- 
frain from such an indecent exhibition 


[31] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


of folly and shallow-minded argument. 
They know in Whom they trust and are 
confident that as He has defeated Satan 
in all his assaults upon the church in 
past generations so now He will in due 
time and in His own good way again 
overthrow the prince of darkness in 
this, his latest attack, on Christian 
brotherhood. 


[32] 


CHAPTER V 


DANGER OF MODERNISM 


UT if the Fundamentalist is 
B justly criticized for narrowness, 
bigotry and intolerance, it is also 

true that the Modernist may be tread- 
ing on dangerous ground. Rejoicing 
in his new freedom of thought and glad 
that the shackles of outworn formulas 
can no longer bind him, let him take 
heed lest his freedom of thought degen- 
erate into a license of imagination, un- 
warranted and dangerous. Far better 
the small island home, with narrow vi- 
sion, founded on a rock, with the light- 

[33] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 





house for guidance and safety, than the 
home upon a ship, with wider vision in- 
deed but tossed on the uncertain waves 
of speculation and drifting hither and 
yon without a compass while the clouds 
of rationalism, even of mysticism, hide 
the light of the pole star. The Funda- 
mentalist is on safe ground, his faith 
has been proved true by the test of cen- 
turies; if he errs it is because of lack of 
faith, and lack of knowledge. 

The Modernist discarding miracles 
as myths, rejecting such portions of 
creeds as do not harmonize with his 
thinking, esteeming his brother Funda- 
mentalist as back-numbered, may find 
that “pride goeth before a fall.” For 
this very freedom of thought, unless 
restrained by due reverence for the eter- 


[34] 


Danger of Modernism 








nal verities and made safe by constant 
companionship with the Holy Spirit 
and the true enlightenment which He 
alone can give, may become a stum- 
bling block indeed, may mean the wreck 
and ruin of highest hopes. 

With the old-fashioned beliefs in 
God and Christ and Holy Spirit you 
are safe, even if you are narrow; with 
the newer thought, and the contempt 
for the narrowness of the old concep- 
tions of faith, there is a greater danger. 
Human nature tends to extremes. 
Wise indeed is he who can find the 
golden mean; who can rejoice in 
the newer freedom, while holding to 
the clear revelations of God proved by 
the test of time and confirmed by the 
deepest wisdom man has known, wisdom 


[35] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


divine, the all-satisfying truth as found 
in Christ. “Fools rush in where angels 
fear to tread.” We are indeed on holy 
ground and with the deepest reverence 
must approach the flaming bush and try 
to understand the meaning of the divine 
truth, the truth growing clearer and 
more glorious as man comprehends 
more fully God’s message in His Word 
and God’s revelation of Himself, which 
did not end with the book of Revelation 
but has been continuous from Adam 
and which will continue until time shall 
merge into eternity. 

Let us try at least and may the Fa- 
ther of all mercy forgive our errors and 
our blunders, due to our feeble vision 
and our partial comprehension. 


[36] 


CHAPTER VI 


A CONFESSION OF FAITH 


gether at church service the Apos- 

tles’ Creed. It seems to mea beau- 
tiful expression of a satisfying faith. 
At least I can say Amen to every word 
of it. It expresses belief in miracles, 
for if the Virgin Birth is accepted as 
true, why not all miracles? The full 
meaning of a God-man is stupendous, 
overwhelming. That God Himself in 
the person of Christ should come to 
earth and dwell with men thirty-three 
years with the intent that men might 


[37] 


[’ our hymn books we often read to- 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


understand Him better, and through 
Him might live the life triumphant and 
joyful while on earth and might through 
Him inherit life eternal, glorious and 
of never-ending peace, is a fact so full 
of richness, wonder and amazing love 
that we must fall upon our knees and 
render to our Father all the worship, 
praise and glory our souls can feel and 
our hearts can utter. “And He filled 
me, and He thrilled me, with a melody 
sublime.” 

There is nothing difficult about mira- 
cles and nothing unreasonable. In- 
deed there is a preponderance of 
evidence for believing them. If we ac- 
cept the fact that God is omnipotent, 
omniscient and omnipresent, that He is 
deeply interested in His creation, and 


[38] 


A Confession of Faith 


especially interested in man, “made a 
little lower than the angels and crowned 
with glory and honor,” what more rea- 
sonable than that He should give to 
man such evidences of Himself, His 
power, His glory and His Fatherhood, 
as would compel man’s belief in such at- 
tributes? Especially would such reve- 
lations of Himself be most fitting and 
necessary in the early days of the child- 
hood of the race, when men were igno- 
rant, without the teachings of history, 
with but one book, without understand- 
ing of God except that one record and 
what their fathers told them, and that 
too often distorted and incomplete. 
The clear and vivid evidence found in 
miracles would certainly be reasonable 
under such circumstances. The record 


[89] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


of such miracles as well as the record of 
God’s messages through His chosen 
representatives on earth would leave no 
excuse for the ignorance, blindness and 
stupidity of future generations. ‘The 
miracles of the Old Testament are rea- 
sonable and just what might have been 
expected from a God of love and power 
and wisdom. Because of them His 
prophets, priests and teachers were in- 
vested with authority and could speak 
to the people in His name His warn- 
ings, His words of comfort, His com- 
mands of service. | 
Passing on the miracles recorded in 
the New Testament, here again the 
same reasons for such miracles suggest 
themselves. The old dispensation with 
its clear record of God’s wisdom, love 


[40] 


A Confession of Faith 


and power; with its plain teaching of 
God’s Fatherhood seen in His bless- 
ings and punishments of Israel so oft 
repeated, just as a truly loving father 
will not spare even punishment to cor- 
rect a wilful, disobedient child; with its 
wondrous beauty of David, Isaiah and 
Job, with its inspiring record of Moses, 
Joshua and Samuel, with its impres- 
sive history of a nation freed from slav- 
ery, taught in the wilderness, blessed in 
Canaan, punished in Babylon, restored 
again to home and native land; this 
clearest revelation of God ever given to 
the nations of earth, had now educated 
Israel to that period in their history 
where in the wisdom of God His su- 
preme and most glorious revelation of 
Himself was now ready, Jesus Christ. 


[41] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


And just as the miracles of the Old 
Testament were fitting and necessary 
for the reasons given, so the almost un- 
believable fact of God living with men 
for thirty-three years to more fully re- 
veal Himself to them, needed miracles, 
signs and wonders to make men compre- 
hend the stupendous reality. Christ’s 
claims for Himself, equality with God, 
Son of God, seeing Him was the same as 
seeing God, etc., etc., etc., could not be 
fully believed even by those most closely 
associated with Him. Noting their 
dullness and their doubts He says: 
“Believe Me that I am in the Father, 
and the Father in Me: Or else believe 
Me for the very works’ sake.” “If 
My claim of divinity seems to you im- 
possible then let the signs and wonders 


[42] 


A Confession of Faith 


your eyes behold convince you of the 
truth of My claim.” We have here 
Christ’s own estimate on the value of 
His miracles. For centuries after, be- 
lief in Christ’s miracles was needed to 
confirm and strengthen doubting souls. 
To believe that God in Christ could 
live among men without any such proofs 
of His power and love for men, would 
seem more difficult than belief in the 
miracles themselves. 

Again, the Virgin Birth, cause of so 
much controversy, seems reasonable and 
quite credible if considered in the light 
of the fact that a life of perfection, 
holiness and power, such as all believers 
ascribe to Christ, would be much more 
difficult to believe if Christ be thought 
to have been born of human parents 


[43 ] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


like the rest of mankind than if the ac- 
count of Luke be accepted as the plain 
statement of a fact impossible for us 
to fully understand and yet absolutely 
true. The phenomena of nature are 
impossible to understand in our present 
state of knowledge but no one doubts 
them. Light, heat, electricity, all pre- 
sent problems no one can answer; but 
to doubt them would argue ill for our 
sanity. Why then are the miracles of 
the Bible so difficult to accept? It may 
be said that in all the history of man- 
kind, there is but this one instance of 
a virgin birth and therefore it savors 
more of a myth than of a reality. 
True, and there is but one Christ re- 
corded in history; another would be 
superfluous. 


[44] 


A Confession of Faith 


You may say that when all the 
reasons for miracles are duly considered 
it still remains true that they cannot be 
proved. Certainly so, and it is also 
true that they cannot be disproved. If 
one’s faith is made richer, deeper and 
more glorious because of belief in 
miracles, why should you, my Modernist 
friend, be guilty of scorn for your 
brother’s child-like faith? And you, 
my Fundamentalist friend, why should 
you question the sincerity of your 
brother’s faith because he cannot, like 
you, accept the miraculous as true? 
Why should you believe and say all 
manner of evil of him because he finds 
it impossible to accept as true what he 
thinks is contrary to reason and scien- 
tific investigation? You both believe 


[45] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


in God, in Christ, and in the Holy 
Spirit. You both believe that through 
Christ alone can man be reconciled to 
God. You both believe in the glorious 
resurrection of Christ with its assur- 
ance of immortality. What more is 
vital ? 

The creed of Christ is simplicity it- 
self. “Believe in Me.” “Take up thy 
cross and follow Me.” ‘“‘Where I am 
there shall ye be also.” “If ye love Me 
keep My commandments.” 


[46] 


CHAPTER VII 
VIOLATION OF A SACRED LAW 


ND yet this civil war within the 

church has brought brothers in 

Christ to violate His most 

sacred command, love to God and love 

to man. “If a man say, I love God, 

and hateth his brother, he is a liar: 

For he that loveth not his brother whom 

he hath seen, how can he love God 
whom he hath not seen?” 

These blind and contentious Funda- 
mentalists and Modernists are liars in- 
deed. A liar and a hypocrite are equal; 
one tells an untruth, the other lives it. 


[47] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


“Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, 
how shall ye escape the damnation of 
hell?’ Phillip II of Spain and Thomas 
de Torquemada were likewise inspired 
of the devil and did their best to per- 
secute, destroy and torture those who 
believed differently than they did. The 
same spirit of bigotry is today as bitter 
if less harmful because the law re- 
strains. 

Not long ago a justly celebrated 
preacher, a man divinely inspired, de- 
claring the truth as God gave him un- 
derstanding of it, listened to by throng- 
ing thousands, for men are as eager to 
hear a great preacher today as they 
were in the days of John the Baptist,— 
this preacher, because he could not agree 
to all the terms of a certain creed, was 


[48] 


Violation of a Sacred Law 








threatened with dismissal from a certain 
pulpit because an assembly of so-called 
church elders held that such refusal on 
his part amounted to heresy. This 
sanctimonious group of hypocrites 
would interfere with and stop the 
preaching of God’s Word to men 
eager to receive it because, forsooth, 
the terms of a man-made creed were 
not fully accepted. Can hypocrisy and 
blundering stupidity go further? “Ye 
blind guides, which strain at a gnat and 
swallow acamel.” 'Torquemada would 
have said, “Believe as I do, or Ill 
roast you’; these saintly sinners say, 
“Preach as we believe or get out.” A 
fine exhibition indeed of brotherly love, 
and Christian charity, the foundation 
stones of the church; a church held up 
[49] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 





to the ridicule of the world because its 
members so far forget their solemn 
vows to Christ; a church weakened and 
bewildered by such internal strife. 


[50] 


CONCLUSION 


ND now, dear reader, if you 
A have had the patience to fol- 

low me thus far, go one step 
farther with me. Let us join hands, us 
three, Fundamentalist, and Modernist, 
and brother in Christ, while we humbly 
bend the knee before the Great White 
Throne of mercy, justice and love. 
Let our hearts beat with gratitude while 
our voices join the anthem of glory, 
praise and honor to our matchless King. 
Let us with bended head and with 
deepest reverence pray to Him who 
lived and suffered and died that we 

[51] 


Fundamentalism Versus Modernism 


might live; as we ask Him to grant us 
the light of His Spirit to illumine our 
feeble minds, to quicken our dull 
hearts, to inspire us with that radiant, 
glowing love to Him and to our fellow 
men, by virtue of which and by which 
alone can His will on earth be done. 
And now to God the Father, to Christ 
His Son, and to His Holy Spirit, be 
all the power and dominion, praise and 
glory, world without end, Amen and 
Amen. 


[52] 








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